Why Odom was confident Kobe would lead Lakers to titles: "We have the best player in the NBA"

After the 2004 NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers were undoubtedly Kobe Bryant 's team. Shaquille O’Neal got traded to the Miami Heat, and the Lakers pivoted to a new era spearheaded by the superstar shooting guard. However, they faced many issues as they could not reach the same level of competing for championships.

The Lakers persisted with Kobe at the forefront and a good set of players behind him. Lamar Odom was one of those guys, as he was a reliable playmaker at the power forward position. His role within the team was big, but everybody knew the Black Mamba was going to strike and lead the Lakers to championships.

“We have the best player in the NBA on our team. If we do the little things, he’s a guy who can take it home. I’ve never seen him take a play off, he wants to win every game,” Odom said to The New York Times in 2006. “He gets criticized when he scores every time, and he gets criticized when he tries to get his teammates involved.”

Shaq's trade to Miami changed the perception of Kobe

In the mid-2000s, after Shaq's trade to the Heat, Kobe was often labelled a ball hog. He scored an absurd amount of points, but the team didn't get as many wins, especially compared to the Shaq era. Numbers, however, tell a different story, as Bryant was a good playmaker, averaging 5.3 assists per game from 2004 to 2008.

Odom believed it was a lazy narrative to put on Kobe just because he scored 30+ points per game. Bryant always made sure to have his teammates involved, but his killer-first mentality was always more obvious because of his unbelievable scoring ability.

Former teammate and nine-time NBA All-Star Gary Payton once discussed how Bryant is misconstrued as a “selfish” player because of the already mentioned score-first mindset. Thankfully, GP proved a point and defended Bean’s reputation.

“If Kobe was selfish and all that, why would he always go to the veterans and ask them what can he do to get better? Selfish players don’t do that,” Payton said on The Old Man and the Three Podcast with J.J. Redick.

Pau Gasol changed everything

General Manager Mitch Kupchak and the Lakers front office wanted to keep building around Kobe. They kept retooling and figuring out ways to help the league’s best player succeed and compete for a title. The biggest move they made was trading for Pau Gasol, which bolstered the team’s frontcourt and made Odom play his optimal role off the bench as a playmaker.

The Lakers won the 2009 and 2010 NBA Finals with Kobe as the best player. The trust paid off because Bryant kept delivering superstar performances every night, but he also had great help from players like Odom, Gasol, Derek Fisher, and Andrew Bynum.

However, without trading for Pau, winning a championship wouldn't be possible because the Spaniard was a legitimate second-best player on the team. He always punished teams down low when defenses decided to focus on Kobe, but Black Mamba also had more space to operate because of the attention Pau commanded from opposing defenses.

Also, two championships Bryant won in 2009 and 2010 debunked the myth that he couldn't win without Shaq. Yes, he needed help of his teammates, but basketball is a team game, and no player can win a title with bunch of scrubs on the roster.

Related: Joel Embiid reminded everyone how Kobe Bryant inspired him to start playing basketball